President Obama Can Now Receive Your Gratitude or Grievances Via Facebook Messenger
Reading letters from the public has been a tradition since the days of Thomas Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln actually held regular office hours in order to meet with people one-on-one. The White House began receiving phone calls in 1880 and emails in 1994. President Obama launched his own Twitter account, while the First Lady is on Snapchat.
President Obama still reads ten letters a day, or “LAD's”. He responds with a handwritten letter to the correspondent.
The president remarked, “And what’s interesting is not only do these letters help me to stay in touch with the people who sent me here, or the people who voted against me, but a lot of times they identify problems that might not have percolated up through the various agencies and bureaucracies. And more than once there have been occasions where these letters inspired action on real problems that are out there.”
The White House messenger bot is the first of its kind for the government. In order to send a message to the President, Facebook users must first go to the White House Facebook page. They can then press the message button, and a chat box will open up. Users will be prompted to click the “Let’s Go” button to indicate that they are ready to send a message.
Facebook users must fill out their contact information and then they can send a message to the President. The message will likely be read by an attache, but it could also potentially become one of the ten “LAD’s”. To learn more or send your own message to the President, please follow this link.